People have spent more time in Dota than most retail games out there. That one map is more fun than all of valve's products combined except for TF2 and CS. Would I pay more than 99 cents for a better version? Fuck yeah.

Then again, would it have been able to build a large userbase if it had started out as something you'd have to pay for? Doubtful.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely think something like DOTA is worth paying for in the state it is now - in fact I plan on getting HoN - but I doubt it would've been able to establish itself in the first place if it had started out with a price-tag.

Would you like me to point out an example of free DLC? The Witcher Enhanced Edition.

To be fair, I doubt the Enhanced Edition would've sold very well as DLC. It's more of a massive patch than extra content in spite of all the dialogue being redone etc. In many ways, it turned the game into what it should've been at launch. Initially, the load times, crashes and memory leaks made it unplayable for me. I would have ignored it if they'd tried to charge me for it, and at I salute them for giving it away for free. Bought it twice in the end: First at release, then the special edition later after finishing the downloaded version, just to have everything on disk. So, in this case, I think they made more from giving it away than they would have if they had tried to sell it, as well as a considerable boost to their street cred.

People aren't fucking whining about horse armor. It's just the classic, and best example of really crappy DLC. And it's the one everyone's familiar with. So if you're going to pull out an example, it's the one that's going to be used. Sorry if that gets your panties in a bunch.

Doesn't change the fact that this particular example's getting older and more tired than a Chuck Norris joke.

In any case, I really don't mind horse armor-type DLC. It's not as if people are buying something without knowing what it is - and if someone wants to waste their cash on something worthless, then be my guest. This includes electronic accessory items as well, like the recent gem I was made aware of on the XBox marketplace: Spartan Armor for your avatar or Mii or whatever it's called on XBL.. A true bargain at 400 MS-points.

With real DLC like Point Lookout typically costing only twice at much at 800 points, featuring dozens of new locations and hours of gameplay, it sure makes you wonder about the people willing to shell out for something as comparatively trivial.

Why do people act like you are forced to buy DLC? Seriously, some of it is shit, but in no way shape or form are you missing out on anything significant by skipping it.

That depends See below.

From what I've heard, the PoP Epilogue DLC was fairly significant, as it provided an extended ending for the original game. Same thing with the FO3 Broken Steel DLC.

Precisely. I bought both of the above and they were well worth it in my opinion. However, I also think they kind of skirted the line of decency by adding fairly significant twists to the endings of either game. If you were to pick up a real sequel to either game without getting these DLC packs, you might find the transition odd, and one way to see it is that you have to pay extra to get the "real" ending.

In general at least, though it may be a tough thing to balance, I think DLC should add something significant while not being vital to the "core" game. Two DLC-packs that in my opinion hit this mark pretty perfectly, are are Lost&Damned and Point Lookout.

Already starting to feel small tingles of anticipation for this game. Doesn't happen too often anymore While ME was far from being my favorite game ever, I still enjoyed my romp through space, especially the mainquest. And as always with Bioware-games, I'm sure the background lore and overall atmosphere will be excellent. Looks like they've addressed my main complaints as well, though how well remains to be seen.

Sony has invested so much in the PS3 and still not have not seen a profit... they have Blu-Ray and lots of price cuts to come, and I think they will stick with the PS3 for quite a long time attempting to get what they can from it.

There is one other factor to this though. Sony obviously used the PS3 to push Blu-ray. If the PS3 helped BD win the format war, which in my opinion it probably did even if amount of contribution is debatable, then you could say it has and will be quite profitable. BD licensing costs are reportedly ridiculous, and will no doubt provide Sony with significant income for years to come.

I actually have played through this on the 360 already, so any negativity from my end is well-founded Picked it up from the bargain bin and ended up having to soldier through on general principle. The game itself had a lot of promise but to be fair, the execution is/was terrible. They have some spiffy tech, sure, but there are countless minor and not so minor annoyances. The core gameplay was fun at times, but this didn't make up for a rather bland experience in my opinion.

Heck, without the Star Wars name and all the hype (granted, the combination of euphoria and digital molecular matter looked mighty cool in the tech demos), it probably would've gone way under the radar.

I don't really see how an Aliens RPG would work either unless it was more of a survival/horror game with RPG elements like System Shock 2.

I haven't followed this so I don't know the direction they were headed before it was canned, but I think there was lots of potential for a fun RPG in the Alien-universe. Dealing with shady corporate types (or being one yourself). Finding artifacts on distant planets. Questionable ethics & experiments, sending people on suicide missions (or going yourself) and all that fun stuff. With some imminent invasion or infestation as the requisite mainquest of course. There was plenty of surrounding mostly unexplored lore they could've delved into/invented.

Though I agree a survival/horror-game with RPG elements would've been the more likely result. "You are stuck on a planet and must find a way off" seems the likely scenario. In fact, some minor stat-system and weapons upgrade overlay seems almost sufficient to warrant the RPG-tag these days..

Haha yep, this type of stuff is nothing but media-fodder. His pay probably comes out of the marketing budget Edit: That's not to belittle the job the guy is doing or anything, but truly, how much of an impact could a historian possibly have on the overall project?

I remember the pre-release hype of the first Creed. "Our towns are based on historic documents from the period of the crusades!". No doubt meant to evoke images of leveldesigners meticulously copying age-old papyrus scrolls with original maps anno 1191. In reality it probably means they dug up a handful of sketches of old buildings and landmarks and winged it from there.

That said, I actually enjoyed the first game, but I'm not sure I like the looks of this new one. Gadgetry is one of my least favorite things about sequels. "The original has 5 weapons. This will have 50, which is ten times more BETTER!".

I was hoping there would be a little sword play with insults in the demo, there was a great opportunity for it at one point.

I bet this will be in one of the coming episodes, assuming it's missing from the first. I'll take the demo for a spin this weekend, but will likely wait until all the episodes are out before playing the whole thing.

In any case, I'm getting the impression, from comments and reviews, that they apparently avoided the pitfall of throwing old references around at every turn like so much candy... This is good, because it would've gotten annoying really fast, for old and new Monkey Island-fans alike.